Kamiko Paper Girl
by FujikoIzu
Summary: Izumi and Kotoko, two girls living in a time of peace, come across an abandoned house while ditching a school trip. There, they find a long-lost book containing the story of two people who used to live in that house. Their names? Yahiko and Konan. YahiKona one-shot.


'Kotoko! Izumi! Are you paying any attention at all to what I'm saying?'

With that exasparated shout, two young girls poked their heads out from behind their seats on the oddly quiet coach. Of course they hadn't been paying attention. They were far too busy listening to music and discussing the relative merits of their new favourite singer, Haru Sakine. He was hot. In fact, he was more than hot. He was so hot that one of the members of the Yuki clan couldn't have cooled him down.

'Yes, sensei!' Kotoko lied, her bright red twintails bobbing up and down as she waved politely at her teacher. She was the more energetic and troublesome of the two, the one who always seemed to be causing a ruckus everywhere she went. Though she wasn't the sharpest shuriken in the box, she always managed to somehow scrape by, much to the amazement of her teachers.

'Of course we were listening!' Izumi added, her somewhat calmer and more mature attitude contrasting against that of her red-haired friend's. While Kotoko was bright and happy, she was dark and somewhat sarcastic with a personality that nobody could quite get to the bottom of. The teacher, an experienced woman of some repute, actually found her somewhat terrifying compared to the simple Kotoko.

'Oh, really? Then enlighten us please, Kotoko. What was I talking about?' the teacher asked, raising one eyebrow and looking the cheerful girl right in the eye. Her gaze darting across to an open-mouthed Izumi, she smiled coldly. 'Izumi, don't answer for her.'

'Uh...we...uh...' sweated the redhead, giving her friend pleading looks as she struggled to remember what on Earth it was that the teacher was saying. 'Uh...we...we're going to a museum and then um...we're going to...eat ramen?' she said hopefully, her voice rising just slightly at the end as if she was asking for the teacher's permission.

'Ramen?' the tall, glasses-wearing woman laughed as she picked up a pen and wrote two names on the clipboard. 'So that'll be Uzumaki Kotoko and Uchiha Izumi for detention again...'

'What? Are you serious?' the dark-haired girl protested, running her hand through the rough spikes of her hair as she smacked her forehead firmly. 'That's not fair, sensei!'

'Yeah! Izumi didn't do anything wrong!' Kotoko protested, her bright blue eyes blazing with a kind of cold fire as she defended her best friend's honour.

'On the contrary...' the teacher insisted, her legs wobbling slightly as the bus pulled up in front of the museum, '...Izumi was clearly distracting you, Kotoko!'

Steam coming out of Kotoko's ears, her face turned from a half-tanned olive to an incredibly angry red. She was just about to say something when Izumi pulled on her blazer, forcing her to sit down. Without Izumi, Kotoko just wouldn't know when to give up. After years of being best friends, they had come to rely on one another quite a bit, almost treating one another like sisters. Izumi was the Yin and Kotoko the Yang, two forces that clashed occasionally but above all else needed one another to survive.

'Don't worry, Kotoko-chan!' the dark-haired girl whispered, a sneaky smile spreading across her face. 'We'll jutsu it up and ditch them later. You got ramen?'

'Please! I never leave home without it!' her friend winked, patting the little cylindrical lump in her backpack. Being from one of the old ninja families of Konohagakure, Kotoko knew a lot about the secrets and history of their world that she probably shouldn't. After the end of the shinobi period and the unification of the mainland, nearly all of the ancient techniques of the various clans had been lost to the ages, the scrolls destroyed and their graves buried under layers and layers of concrete. However, there still remained a few ninja in this world, highly trained individuals who were sent out in times of need. Kotoko and Izumi's families were full of them, their secrets still being handed down the generations as if there was still a need for them in their current time of peace. Of course, once the children learned these techniques, they would keep it a secret from anyone but those who bore the same responsibilities. The life of a child in one of these clans was a difficult one, one that no ordinary civilian schoolfriend could possibly understand.

Still, there were definitely some upsides to all this. As Kotoko had recently discovered, there were a whole variety of techniques that could be used inappropriately and to her advantage. The Kage Bunshin, or Shadow Clone jutsu was particularly useful as was the transformation technique. Substitution was good for making a quick getaway and of course there was the mini Rasengan for reducing that annoying two-minute waiting time while the ramen was cooking. So long as they were sneaky about it, the teachers didn't seem to notice what they were doing, or at least turned a blind eye to their illicit activities. Quite often, they would randomly transform into one another in class or send Shadow Clones into their lessons while they did more worthwhile things, such as hanging out on the roof and fangirl squealing over Haru Sakine. Of course, they did occasionally get caught. Not that they minded. The fun was more than worth the risk.

Today was going to be no exception. A trip to the Amegakure Shinobi History museum? Not the end of the world. A trip to the Amegakure Shinobi History museum with Umino-sensei?

Hell no!

* * *

'I can't believe they fell for it _again_!' Kotoko giggled, her twintails bobbing up and down as she leapt over the fence at the back of some kind of compound. Extending a hand, she pulled her friend up and over, causing both of them to land in a giggling heap on the muddy floor. Somehow, they always ended up doing this every time they had a field trip. They would say that they were just going to look around, maybe catch a film at the cinema or go shopping in the town but some way or another, they would always end up travelling off of the beaten track. This time, it had been the sight of a small wooden house alone out on a plain that had fired up their imaginations. What would they find there? Why was it all the way out in the middle of nowhere? They just had to find out.

'Umino-sensei is so dumb...' the dark-haired girl agreed, jumping heroically off of her friend's slightly crushed chest. 'Come on, Kotoko. We've only got...'

'Five whole hours. At least,' the Uzumaki girl sighed, punching her friend lightly on the arm as she stood up. 'Izumi, you worry too much.'

Smiling wanly at her enthusiastic friend, Izumi acknowledged that this was true. However, Kotoko worried too little. Perhaps one day, between them, they would find the perfect level of anxiety for every situation. Everything seemed to be a balancing act whenever their friendship was concerned. Once, they had been rivals, die-hard enemies that couldn't even say a sentence to one another without arguing. Until they had entered middle school and found themselves forcibly placed sitting next to one another, they hadn't realised how much they needed one another. Maybe that was why the Uchiha and Uzumaki families had been on the same ninja squads for generations. Without the stoic darkness of the Uchiha clan, the brilliant light of the Uzumaki clan would never shine to its full potential. Or at least that was the age-old excuse for locating their compounds next door to one another for the past two hundred years.

'Wow, that's a really small house...' Kotoko remarked, jumping up and down as they drew closer and closer to the little wooden shack.

'Yeah. It looks more like a shed than anything!' Izumi gasped, looking around for a larger house in the vicinity. However, the flat ground around them revealed nothing but hills, fields and rain-drenched caves for miles. The floor was slippery from yesterday's rain, the ground sliding and squelching underneath her feet as she walked. Where on Earth had they managed to end up this time?

Kotoko was beginning to get extremely excited. Yes, it was a little wooden hut in the middle of nowhere, sitting plainly in the middle of a field three miles out from Amegakure. However, it was a wooden hut that could contain and lead to any number of things. Maybe it was a hideout, an entrance to an old secret ninja base full of traps and secrets. Then again, maybe it was just a little shed that someone kept their tools in. Either way, she was more than eager to find out.

'Kotoko...what if someone lives in there?' Izumi whispered, her footsteps quietening as the two of them approached the little house. Looking around her, she had already noticed something strange about this place. It was unusually clear. Unusually free from trees, flowers and other kinds of life. The ground was also scarred, as if it had been hit, burnt, flooded and reformed too many times to count. It was quite possible that at one point, it had been the site of some kind of battle. Actually, judging by the extent of the damage to the area, it was most likely more than one battle. If she remembered, Amegakure and the surrounding area had been the site of a lot of battles in at least one of the Shinobi World Wars. Was it possible that they were discovering something that nobody else had?

'Hey...I don't think people would come all the way out here! Besides, if someone _does _live here, we can use their kettle and make ramen!' Kotoko grinned, jumping up on the house's porch and almost falling through the floor as she did so. The wood was old here and a little rotten from all the rain, meaning that as soon as Kotoko's overactive feet had touched the old beams, they had completely collapsed, leaving a big hole in the middle of the porch.

'Wow. Kotoko, you were actually right for once...' the Uchiha whistled, casually leaning on the doorframe as she swung open the rickety old door and made her way in, Kotoko following behind her like an over-excited puppy. However, as soon as they truly opened their eyes to the sight unfolding before them, they stopped moving completely.

The house they had found themselves in was not a tool shed, nor was it a secret ninja base. In fact, it looked just like an ordinary house, albeit one that was built a very long time ago. It was surprisingly well-preserved for such an ordinary, hastily built construct and though it was dusty, everything was still in place. Even though there was a large hole in the roof and many plants had grown through, it only seemed to serve to make the building stronger. A dusty, slightly torn curtain ran across the middle of the hut, effectively dividing it in two. To the left of the girls were a row of sinks and some basic cooking equipment with varying degrees of rust and damage. There appeared to be some sort of upper area in the hut, its wall occupied by a shelf holding nothing but three small cards. Three small red cards, arranged in a neat row. Kotoko's eyes widening in curiosity, she ran directly over to the shelf to check them out.

'Izumi!' she called, beckoning for her friend to follow her. Closing the door behind her, Izumi rushed over to her friend to see what she had found.

'Are those frogs?' she asked, her eyebrows rushing up dramatically as she picked up one of the cards, turning it over.

'Never mind the frogs. Look at the writing!' Kotoko grinned, pointing to the little plaques resting directly under the cards. 'Those are names, aren't they?'

'Na...ga...to...' Izumi read out slowly, taking in every single syllable as the name rolled unfamiliarly on her tongue.

'That's a boy's name, right? This one is a boy too. Yahiko,' the Uzumaki smiled, brushing a chunk of hair out of her eyes.

'This one's a girl, look! Konan. I wonder what they looked like?' the dark-haired Uchiha wondered, placing the card red-side out on the shelf, just as the previous occupants had left it.

'Konan...' breathed Kotoko, the name setting off some kind of alarm bell in her mind. 'I've heard that name before.'

'Yeah. Konan in our class. Seriously, I swear you get dumber every day...' Izumi sighed, getting up onto her feet and deciding to explore the place properly. 'I bet there's photos or something in one of these cupboards!' she said, smiling eagerly as she bent down to open one of the cupboards under the sink. To her surprise, instead of it being full of pots and pans or books, it was full of slightly blunted kunai and shuriken. _They must have been ninjas... _she deduced, looking up at the ceiling as she did so. _That's a jutsu on the ceiling. It's made of waterproof paper... _she noticed, the broken white squares of paper flapping slightly around the edge of the hole as the wind blew in from outside. _So that's how it's lasted all these years. _

'Hey, Izumi! Whatcha doing?' Kotoko said noisily, getting tangled up in the curtain as she skipped over to her friend. Unfortunately, as she was rushing she ended up tripping over a loose floorboard, one that Izumi had of course been careful to avoid.

'Kotoko, you idiot...' she sighed, abandoning her cupboard exploration to lend a hand to her friend. Just as she was pulling the girl up, she noticed something about the ground (not the air, as it usually was) that she had tripped over. Pausing for a moment, Izumi knelt down on the floor and forced the wooden board up and down with her finger. It was loose, looser than it should be with the general wear and tear caused by the passage of time. Perhaps someone had loosened it on purpose?

'Hey, Izumi. You think there's something under that floorboard?' Kotoko asked, pushing the plank of wood away and worming her hand into the gap between the floorboards and the foundations of the house.

'Kotoko, get your hand out from there! These people were ninjas! There might be traps in this house we don't know about!' the Uchiha hissed, her hands flying up to her head as her reckless friend reached further in, gripping around as if she had found something. Eventually, after a very stressful two minutes, Kotoko managed to retrieve something from the hole in the ground.

'Ooh, a book!' smiled the red-haired girl, giving its dusty old cover a good wipe as she ran her hand over the cover. 'Look, Izumi! Someone in this house was a writer!'

'Give me that!' Izumi snapped, forcing the little book out of the hands of her pouting friend. Flicking briefly through the pages, she gasped in surprise. 'Kotoko, this is handwritten!' she grinned, her face lighting up with a mixture of curiosity and excitement.

'Ooh! Ooh! Let's read it out loud!' the young redhead insisted, grabbing the book off of her friend once again and nearly tearing one of the pages in the process. 'Okay. It's called...Kamiko.'

'Paper Girl? What a weird name for a story...' the Uchiha noticed, her nose wrinkling a little as the image of a little girl made entirely of paper came into her mind. 'Well, go on and read it then! We haven't got all day.'

'Okay, okay. Right. It all started on a rainy day...'

* * *

_It all started on a rainy day. Then again, a rainy day isn't exactly unusual around here. In fact, it rains almost every day. Sometimes, I think that the reason it rains every day is because the land, our land, is crying. That's why instead of the Land of Sunshine or the Land of Summer, it's called the Land of Rain. However, this is all besides the point. The most important thing is that it was raining._

_I had lost my parents a week ago and was having to fend for myself for the first time in my life. Being a scrawny twelve year old boy with hair as orange as the rising sun, you can probably guess exactly how much luck I was having. Within three days, I had resorted to stealing, something I vowed that I would never do. Still, despite this, I was still incredibly grateful for one thing. The fact that somehow, by some small chance, I was still alive._

_On this particular day, I happened to have encountered a gang of older teenagers, who had made off with the only thing I had to keep the rain off of me. A small paper umbrella, a green one that I had found tossed to the side of the road, stained with someone's blood. I didn't want to know whose. I just took it, snatched it without a second thought, let the wind dry my rain-soaked skin as I huddled under the tiny, pale green circle. It sounds horrible, to take an umbrella from the dead but like I said, these were desperate times. There was a war on, a terrible, violent war and each day I woke up not knowing whether or not I would be the next one to leave a bloodstain on that tiny umbrella._

_So there I was, standing in the rain, soaked to my skin and blisters all over my aching feet. I had found some shelter but the doorway I had been forced to stop in was of a house that had been blown up by some foreign ninja, meaning that there was little left than the doorway. It was then, as I shivered in the doorway in nothing more than a thin T-Shirt and a pair of ripped trousers, that I saw the one thing that would change my life forever._

_Standing there right in front of me, clutching a pale pink paper umbrella, was a girl. No, not just a girl. A girl with hair as blue as a painted waterfall and eyes like amber jewels. I rubbed my eyes and blinked, the rain that had accumulated on my face shifting downwards just a little as I looked at her once more. It was almost as if she was my guardian angel, the one who had appeared to take care of me just when I needed her most. She reminded me of a drawing, a portrait on paper, a sketch that one of my friends had done quite a long time ago._

_'That's what an angel looks like,' he'd said. Seeing the girl now, I was inclined to believe him. In fact, as I slowly approached her, I began to wonder if she really was one. She was just standing there, not a scratch on her body, completely unharmed by the war going on around us. _

_'Excuse me, miss,' I said, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. 'Are you an angel?'_

_She looked quite shocked by this. I can still remember her face now, the wide-eyed surprise in her eyes the first time she looked at me. I must have been filthy, cut-up and disgusting by now, something that would scare the living daylights out of any normal person. However, this girl just turned around and smiled at me, giggling slightly as she moved her umbrella so that it covered my head as well as hers._

_'No, sorry!' she laughed, stretching out her hand to shake mine. 'My name is Konan.'_

_'Yahiko,' I replied, my voice squeaking as I touched the smooth skin of her hand. 'Are you travelling alone?'_

_'Yes,' she replied, the sadness of her past experiences evident in her voice. 'Are you?'_

_'Yes,' I replied, hesitating to ask the next question, the most obvious question of all._

_'You're soaked. Here,' she said, handing me her umbrella. 'Take it. I'll find another one.'_

_'No, no,' I insisted, shoving the pale pink paper covering back into her hand. 'We'll both take it.'_

_With those words, the two of us walked off together, barely saying a word to one another until we had found shelter around half an hour later. It was an odd moment, a chance meeting, a seemingly insignificant occurence but it was one that would change my life forever._

_Konan. The girl with the paper umbrella. My guardian angel._

_My very own Kamiko._

* * *

'No way. No way!' Izumi gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as she glanced over at the three names underneath the red cards. Nagato, Yahiko and Konan. Was this story true? It couldn't be. Why would a ninja write his life story out and leave it under the floorboards of his hideout? Did he forget to take it with him when he left? Izumi didn't know. Snatching the book feverishly out of Kotoko's hands, she grinned at her friend.

'Oi!' Kotoko said grumpily, putting her hands on her hips and pouting. 'Who said it was your turn to read?'

'Me!' grinned Izumi, sticking her tongue out at the little red-haired girl. Clearing her throat and opening her mouth, she began to read.

* * *

_We travelled for some time, just the two of us. A few months passed that way, going from village to village and back again, never staying in the same place for too long. Eventually, the two of us found a place to live together, a little place we could call home. We even found my old bloodstained umbrella, putting the two pleated paper circles next to one another by the door every time we came in. Soon, they were joined by many other little folded paper creations, their beautiful folds filling up every available surface. Konan really had a thing for origami. Her creations were so realistic that sometimes I believed they could even come to life. Her particular favourite was the rose, something that she would practice making over and over again, tying them to each other in huge bunches along the shelves and around the furniture. Sometimes, she would tie them in my hair, tie them in her hair, entwine them up and down our arms until we were covered in roses. I could smell her scent in every rose, her distinctive flowery smell running up and down my body as the paper covered us both. Laughing, we collapsed on the floor, temporarily forgetting all of the horrors of the war we were caught up in._

_'Konan,' I remember asking her as we lay in the fields of paper that she had created. 'What if I were to change the world?'_

_'Change the world?' she asked, springing a little paper frog my way. 'Only God can do something like that.'_

_'Is that what you believe?' I asked, my eyes meeting hers in a serious stare, the intensity of it taking my breath away._

_'Yes,' she said, her amber eyes saddening as she looked at me, then up at the roof of the home we had built together. I could see in her eyes that she really wanted something to be done, something to be made right in this world._

_'Then I will be your God,' I replied recklessly, leaning forwards and taking her two little ivory hands in mine. 'I will change this world of pain forever. I will make things right. I promise you, Konan.'_

_Closing her eyes, a smile reached across Konan's face. We sat there, her hands placed awkwardly in my own for quite some time, our eyes cast down towards the floor. Eventually, she whispered a reply to me, a beautiful reply that almost sounded as if it had come from the mouth of an angel._

_'Then if you are my God...' she replied, her eyes flicking upwards to meet once more with mine, '...I am your angel.'_

_Of course, it didn't take much time for the numbers in our little group to multiply, the two umbrellas overlapping by the door turning into three. Then when they finally broke, the newest member of our group, a kid with long red hair called Nagato, stole us three helmets from an abandoned house. Somehow, even though I loved the moments when Konan and I were alone, three was definitely not a crowd. Though it took a bit of getting used to, we each grew up together, the three of us each having our own position in the group. I was the Prince, the leader, the bright torch of the group. Nagato was the Knight, the person protecting us secretly from the shadows. Konan was our Princess, our paper girl, our angel and mother. Though we both loved her, I think that Nagato and I loved her differently. To Nagato, she was simply someone he had to protect, a friend and precious teammate. To me, she was something more, yet I didn't know quite what. You can't blame me. We were only twelve years old at the time and when it came to romance, we didn't have the faintest idea._

_It was then that Konan, Nagato and I, the three musketeers, met the man who taught us to become what we had to be. Shinobi. We found a house, a little wooden shack out on an open plain in the raniest part of the Land of Rain. It was small, a little cramped, yet for the four of us that lived there it was exactly right. We grew up, growing like Konan's paper flowers in the fertile fields of the Land of Rain. The years passed, my feelings for her growing every single day, growing until I could no longer contain it. The only problem was, I had no idea if she felt the same way._

_Yet somehow, something told me that she did. The way she looked at me when we talked, the way she always served me food before anyone else and the way that she always calmly bandaged me up when I injured myself all told me that there was something between us that neither of us had ever experienced before. Sometimes, she would leave little paper creations in my room to cheer me up. At first, they were simple things like frogs and cranes but as time passed, her designs grew more and more elaborate until finally, one day, I found a minature angel sitting right next to my bed. After all those months of fighting, she still remembered._

_So things passed, time marched on, nothing much changing until our group of four became a three once more. I apologise wholeheartedly for not telling you more about this part of my life. However, this is not a story about the war or the neverending battles that rocked our nation during that time. It is not about the right or wrong or the people that fought and died in the endless months of war. It is about a story that will be forgotten, a story that will never be told unless I tell it._

_A story of love._

* * *

A shiver of excitement rushing through Kotoko's body, she let out a small squeal of surprise. _Ninjas! Love in a time of war! _she thought, fistpumping the air as the last words rang out from her friend's lips. It was really getting exciting now. So exciting, in fact, that she definitely didn't want to let Izumi have all the fun reading the next bit.

'How old do you think they were?' Izumi asked, looking up at Kotoko's excited face and handing the book to her.

'How old? I don't know. Younger than us, I would think,' the red-haired girl smiled, her eyes flashing as she panned over the next page. 'Oh, it says here. Looks like they were the same age as us. Sixteen,' she confirmed, nodding her head in excitement as she began to read the next section.

* * *

_A few years passed, the years of war disappearing slowly into times of peace. Konan started wearing those paper flowers in her hair and like those roses she loved so much, she blossomed into a woman more beautiful than any of us could have ever imagined. As for me, I barely changed. I grew taller, a little more muscular but that was about it. I was still reckless, immature and stupid while she was caring, serious and intelligent. If I was fire, burning with passion, then she was water, running unseen in the fields and rivers of our country. I needed her like I needed water. If it wasn't for her, there was no way that I would have survived more than a few days out in the war, in the times when we were growing our organisation._

_What were we called, you ask? We were called Akatsuki. The dawn. The start of a new day, the rise of a new power in a country that did nothing but cry. Together, we would start again. We would teach pain to those who had brought it to us and by doing that, bring the sun back to the rainy skies of our war-torn country. I had fulfilled my promise and she hers. My little paper girl, my Kamiko, had become my Guardian Angel._

_It was the day of our sixteenth birthday that I finally began to understand the way I felt about her. We had fought our first battle as the Akatsuki on that day, a tough battle that really tested our limits as ninja. I had come out of it quite badly, my right arm broken through in two places and burns covering my shoulders and chest. As Konan wrapped the bandages around my broken and aching body, each little movement of her hands caused me unbearable pain. I tried to endure it but before long, I found myself crying out in pain._

_'Konan! Watch it!' I said, laughing a little as I held my arm in place._

_'Sorry, I'll just...' she apologised, lightly extending her hand to touch my arm. However, instead of simply wrapping the bandage around my arm as she usually did, she paused for a second, her fingertips lightly brushing my elbow._

_Words failing me, I tilted my head to look into those deep pools of amber that didn't deserve a word as common as eyes. We looked at each other for a few seconds, a heavy silence descending on the little world we had created in that one instant. I could feel my heart thump faster, the tightly wound coils of pain in my body slowly loosening as we looked at one another, our lips parted as if we were expecting something. I was so caught up in her gaze, so lost in the intracacies of the moment that I didn't even notice she had been slowly pulling me closer all of the time. _

_I wanted to whisper her name, to say something, to stop things. Or did I? I wasn't sure. My heart was racing, its beat jumping up and down my body like electricity. Why were our faces so close?_

_As she extended her free hand, cupping it gently under my chin, I could feel her pulse racing just as fast as mine. We didn't need words. All we needed was one another. As my lips met hers for the first time, her soft kiss pulling me in, I finally knew what I felt. I loved her. I'd loved her from the moment I'd met her. I'd loved her from the day I had seen her standing in the rain under her little paper umbrella, her hair hanging in messy blue spikes around her face. Now, finally, after four years of waiting, she was mine. My girl made of paper and born from the heavens. _

_That night, we kissed all night like the teenagers we were. I told her everything. Everything from how I had genuinely thought she was an angel the first time we met to my ambitions to change the shinobi world. Like the roses she wore in her hair, she opened up to me and told me all of her secrets, all of her hopes and dreams. Like me, she wanted nothing more than to live in a peaceful world. A world where we didn't have to keep fighting and running. As I held her hands in mine, my lips exploring down her neck, I thought of a time and a place where we could be like this every day. A time in a peaceful world where we could love one another freely, our brother Nagato at our side. My love for her, the softness of her skin to my touch, the calm pressing of her lips on mine only deepened my resolve. I would change the world. Akatsuki, our brothers, every single one of us would rise up and become the Gods of this shinobi world. We would preside over it, never resting until there was peace in this world, unbreakable peace that could never be shattered._

_Konan, this is for you. This book, these words, my writing, my life, my resolve. One day, I promise we will live in a world where our nations are no longer at war. Until then, I will keep my promise. I will be your God, you my Angel and Nagato our right-hand man, bringing peace to the shinobi world one step at a time._

_And when we achieve that peace, I promise you this, Konan. We will return to this house and I will read this to you again. I will read you the story of how I fell in love with you, leaving out nothing this time. Yes, I left out a part when I read this to you the day before we left this place, the day before we left to change the world. Actually, I left out the most important part of all._

_Konan. I have a question for you._

_If you still love me even after all this time..._

_Will you marry me?_

* * *

A tear ran down Izumi's cheek, her lip trembling as the final sentence repeated in her head. Konan. Paper girl. His Kamiko. The Angel. She never got to hear those last sentences, those final words. The words he never spoke, the question he had no time to ask her. Exhaling heavily, Izumi closed her eyes, the weight of Yahiko's final words pressing heavily down on her.

Both of the girls were unusually quiet as they made their way back on the bus. They were so quiet, in fact, that even Umino-sensei had noticed. Tiptoeing up to the two sad-looking girls, the teacher crouched down beside their seat.

'Are you alright, girls?' she asked, waving a hand in front of their faces, breaking them out of their depressed stupor.

'Oh, yes. Yes. We're fine...' Kotoko lied, brushing some of the mud off of her school skirt as she stared aimlessly into space. Had she been crying? Her eyes were red and slightly puffy. Perhaps she should ask.

'Are you sure?' their teacher asked, an expression of extreme concern spreading across her face. 'Is there anything you need? A sick bag?'

'No, we're not coach sick,' Izumi confirmed, her dark eyes staring sadly into her teacher's. 'However, we would be grateful if you can answer a question for us. It's about the Akatsuki.'

'The Akatsuki?' their teacher asked, pushing her glasses up her nose and smiling forcefully. 'Whyever would you want to know about them?'

'We just...we just wonder what happened to them. That's all!' Kotoko stammered, her face slightly red as she looked from her teacher to her friend and back again.

'The Akatsuki? Well, as far as I know, they were all casualties of the Fourth Shinobi World War,' the teacher said thoughtfully, looking at the girls' crestfallen faces. It was as they feared. Konan had died before Yahiko could tell her, before he could bring peace to the world. They had both broken their promises to one another, their promises to the shinobi world. Though peace had come, it was not brought about by them.

'Oh,' Kotoko sighed, a heavy weight descending sharply on her mind. 'All of them?'

'Yes. All of them,' the teacher smiled, happy that they were taking such an interest in history. 'If you want, I can lend you a book telling the story of the Akatsuki. Would you...be interested in that?'

'Yes,' the two of them nodded vigorously, smiles extending across their faces once more.

'Here,' the teacher said, producing a book from her bag. 'This one's not about all of the members but it should give you a start. It's called _God and his Angel_.'

_God and his...? _Kotoko thought, leaning over Izumi's shoulder to look at the cover of the book. On the front sat a man with bright orange hair, his face marked with piercings of some sort. Next to him stood a blue-haired woman, a beautiful woman with a paper flower in her hair.

_Together until the end... _Izumi smiled as her hand ran over the two faces on the cover.

_Yahiko and Konan._

_A love that will always be remembered._


End file.
